Study unveiled despite terror risk

Federal panel says bird flu report would help guard against pandemic

Associated Press

Published 10:18 pm, Thursday, June 21, 2012

Photo: Irwin Fedriansyah

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 file photo, soldiers wear protective gear during a bird flu prevention drill in Jakarta, Indonesia. The second of two bird flu studies once considered too risky to publish was released Thursday, June 21, 2012 ending a saga that pitted concerns about terrorism against fears of a deadly global epidemic. Both papers describe how researchers created virus strains that could potentially be transmitted through the air from person to person. Scientists said the results could help them spot dangerous virus strains in nature. (AP Photo/Irwin Fedriansyah) less

FILE - In this Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008 file photo, soldiers wear protective gear during a bird flu prevention drill in Jakarta, Indonesia. The second of two bird flu studies once considered too risky to publish ... more

Photo: Irwin Fedriansyah

Study unveiled despite terror risk

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

NEW YORK — The second of two bird flu studies once considered too risky to publish was released Thursday, ending a saga that pitted concerns about terrorism against fears of a deadly global epidemic.

Both papers describe how researchers created virus strains that could potentially be transmitted through the air from person to person. Scientists said the results could help them spot dangerous virus strains in nature.

But last December, acting on advice of a U.S. biosecurity panel, federal officials asked the researchers not to publish details of the work, which identified the genetic mutations used to make the strains. They warned the papers could show terrorists how to make a biological weapon.

That led to a wide-ranging debate among scientists and others, many of whom argued that sharing the results with other researchers was essential to deal with the flu risk.

Bird flu has spread among poultry in Asia for several years and can be deadly in people, but it only rarely jumps to humans. People who get it usually had direct contact with infected chickens and ducks. Scientists have long worried that if the virus picked up mutations that let it spread easily from person to person, it could take off in the human population, with disastrous results.

Now Playing:

The two teams that conducted the controversial research eventually submitted revised versions of their papers to the federal biosecurity panel. They said the changes focused on things like the significance of the findings to public health, rather than the experimental details themselves.

The panel announced in March it supported publishing the revised manuscripts, saying it had heard new evidence that sharing information about the mutations would help in guarding against a pandemic. It also concluded that the data didn't appear to pose any immediate terrorism threat.